Delivery van catches fire on Mountain Road in Concord

Bill Jewell crosses Mountain Road after a delivery van, making a stop to his rental property next door, erupted into flames on Tuesday afternoon, March 25, 2014. Concord firefighters responded to the vehicle fire as flames began to melt siding on the homes. Jewel was upstairs when his tenant ran over and notified his wife Paula Jewell, that the van was on fire, he said. Smoke was seen billowing out of the hood of the van before flames erupted.
(JOHN TULLY / Monitor staff)

A cargo van delivering oxygen tanks caught fire yesterday afternoon just outside a rental home at 56 Mountain Road. No injuries were reported.

The owner of the home, Bill Jewell, who lives next door, said the van was delivering the tanks to his tenant’s mother and it caught fire about 4:30 p.m. It’s unclear how many tanks were in the van. Jewell said he and his wife, who were home at the time, heard no explosion but saw heavy flames. Jewell said firefighters reported that the driver was not injured in the incident.

It’s unclear what started the fire. Several fire trucks responded to the scene, blocking off the road for roughly half an hour. Jewell, a 70-year-old former firefighter, said it took them five to 10 minutes to extinguish the blaze.

The van remained in the driveway at 5 p.m., by then little more than a charred frame. The home did not appear to have been seriously damaged by the fire, Jewell said.

(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)